February 21, 2019, 4:52 pm. The quiet moment when you prepare to disembark.

The Twice-Scuttled carries us into an unnamed bay near the south coast. We part ways with the captain, and I assure her that she will be paid upon her return to Glimmering Sands. Beth made sure I knew the password in case anything happened to her. I thought she was just being paranoid. Being over-prepared is better than under-prepared, as seems to be her motto.

Watching the ship float over the waves, I look north. Now that we're back on the mainland, free of interference, returning to Glimmering Sands would only take a simple teleport.

Shaking my head, I launch myself above the thick temperate rainforest near the coast, joining the others as we fly in the direction of Burnesq. Our flight is mostly quiet, stopping late in the evening after tracking our way to a nearby Nexus point. When we're able to add it to our network, and open a door to Raz's, there's a collective sigh of relief.

Then we're through the door, into the waiting lobby. An unknown beetle-person shows up, though they seem to recognize us immediately and show us in. Amazingly, Raz shows up as we're seated.

"I was getting worried," he says as he brings us drinks we didn't have time to order.

I pick up the blue-fruit juice, taking a sip, and I sigh. "We had a good couple weeks. Then a rough five minutes."

"Well, you'll have to tell me all about it over dinner. It's amazing how much more free time I have now that I have good help," Raz says as he pulls up a chair. "Hired a manager, and let me tell you, she's..." Raz pauses, looking over his shoulders before leaning forward over the table, when he seems certain we're alone, he continues, "terrifying. But amazing with the staff. And keeping things ordered. And pretty much everything."

There's a silence that sets over the table as I take another sip, and I glance over my shoulder. Standing there, with her dark-green arms crossed, is a dracanoid around Raz's size. And she's clearly a her, the breasts giving it away before I even Focus on her.

Even as I give Alzanin's analysis a quick once over, she speaks. "Razalin Crancoid. I do believe that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said about me. Terrifying, am I?"

"Alzanin. Should I not be terrified of anyone who can do paperwork as fast as you?" Razalin says, flashing a grin full of razor-sharp teeth.

Before any of us can respond, Alzanin turns away, her wings flaring behind her as she disappears into the crowd.

"Well. It appears your story must wait. If I don't appease her, she might kill me in my sleep. Or worse, close the bar," Razalin says, practically leaping over his chair as he dashes after Alzanin.

"Damn. I missed this place," Josh says as he takes a long pull on his drink.

Which he immediately spits up when he discovers the bug-shaped berry I teleported into it.

It really is good to be back.

...TPWM, ...

February 22, 2019, 6:13 am.

We don't spend much time at Raz's in the morning, having completed most of our business the night before. There's even a message from Demo. Apparently, he's established contact with the Daughters. He's negotiating with the doll-mercenaries for the location of his ship, though he indicates that the things they want are truly non-standard. He doesn't say how long he'll be, but he mentions that he'll be sending messages daily, and if we don't get one, assume the worst has happened.

As I relay that unexpected news, we grab a hot breakfast, then head out just in time to witness Raz and Alzanin bickering. Though with the way they’re smiling at each other, I think they’re enjoying it. That or one of them will be missing next time we visit.

As we step back onto Akilo, my eyes are drawn upwards. From this far south, Ukila almost hangs in the sky. Even from hundreds of kilometres away, the spout is visible, reaching upwards toward Akilo's partner. No one has ever sailed between them, from what e'Tell told me, but she's given it a shot. Unfortunately, there's a point where the mana-storm and the ocean become one and the same. Add on that the storm doesn’t actually reach Ukila, and it makes the journey a bit tricky.

The morning passes quickly, and we're getting close to the Builder's city when I notice a small herd of Zanbia fording a river. Well, there are only five of them, but given the size of the Zanbia, that small herd is big enough to occupy a football stadium. I find myself smiling at their smaller fifth member as he struggles to climb up the shore, one of the other Zanbia reaching back to scoot him upwards with their head.

Even as the larger one is stretching downward; a small form emerges from the bushes. Then more and more stream out. There are dozens of the shapes, and when I zoom in with my Twilight-enhanced vision, I recognize them. They're Pothlin, the twisted fake-pu'shaha that chased me just before I met Rufka, and they're snarling as they leap on the smaller Zanbia.

We could keep flying. The Zanbia are strong. Probably strong enough that they'll swat these pests like the nothing they are.

But...

I don't hesitate to teleport closer, dozens of tethers lashing out in an instant as I drop into Pause. Once I'm certain I have them all, I release Lesser Cataclysm. It's my first time using it since inside the dungeon, and the result feels different. Instead of space around me shattering, there are small distortions around each of the Pothlin. Amazingly, Lesser Cataclysm doesn't pull me out of Pause, though it does suck away all my Facet. I watch the distortions spread as the features of the Pothlin are distorted. Then they collapse into small balls, before puffing outwards in swirls of blue dust and tinkling essence.

When Pause comes to an end, the Zanbia, who were just starting to react to the Pothlin... keep reacting to the Pothlin for several long seconds before realizing the threat is gone, stomping down, and flailing their tails about. One of them even snaps its massive jaw in my direction, though it draws up short. When they've settled, they turn away, two of them keeping themselves between me and the smaller one.

Unable to help myself, I wave at them as they retreat. "Stay safe! Don't let the Pothlin bite!"

As I lift into the air, moving towards the others, I run into Rufka whose expression is twitching as she attempts to keep a smile off her face. "That was reckless."

"It was just Pothlin," I reply, taking her elbow as I turn towards where the others are waiting higher up.

"Not that. You used your ability. The one that leaves you empty."

"Ah. Right," I acknowledge. That was probably... "Yeah, I didn't need to do that."

"Good."

"But you have to admit, it was pretty awesome," I say, unable to keep the smile off my face. Especially since that was totally worth it to experiment with my ability.

"Do I?" Rufka asks, tapping her chin. Then she smiles. "I do, don't I."

Chuckling, I watch the herd of Zanbia as they move towards the forest north of the river, the little one stopping regularly to glance back in our direction. I wave at it again, even though I doubt it can see me. Then we continue on our way towards the Builder City.

An hour later, we see it on the horizon, the glint of silver visible even without Twilight enhanced vision. When I zoom in, I grimace. The engines look intact, but I don't see any trace of the central spire. Floating closer, I note that most of the buildings are also intact, which is promising. Even the engines are all in their proper positions. Where the spire should be, waiting in the centre of the city, facing away from us, is another of the Sentinels. It's missing the fist on one hand but is otherwise intact. The damn thing is taller than most of the buildings around it. A quick analysis confirms its stats are similar to the last, though it has wind affinity.

Luckily, my Facet has recharged. I could try hitting it with Lesser Cataclysm. However, the strange resistance the other one had to my teleport-shear attack makes me wary. That was just a head. And I’d rather not go straight to empty.

"So, what do we think?" I ask after telling the others everything I've observed.

"We’re much stronger than against the last one," Roberts says, but the tone makes me think he's not advocating we fight.

Tipan is distracted, much like she's been since Pelogg stole the book. But she still turns back, looking in the direction of the Sentinel. Then her form changes, wind infusing her body. "I vote we fight. And be ready to run. Wyonna says they won't chase us."

"A fight sounds good," Josh agrees, clenching his fists while glaring at the statue. Rose nods silently beside him.

I don't need to bother asking Smoulder if she’s ready for a fight. Cause, duh. And Rufka just nods to me, not in agreement with the others, but an acknowledgement that she'll go with whatever I choose. I squeeze her hand, looking back to the Sentinel. "Okay. We fight. But first, let's review our options. And our fallback conditions."

The next few minutes are discussions of the tactics we've been learning from Beth, tactics that are outdated, when accounting for our new abilities. I realize as we talk that this is something we could've discussed at any point on our way. And we would've if Beth had been here. We spend half an hour adjusting the three most likely plans before confirming we’re ready to fight the Sentinel.

Beginning the fight is an exercise in rapid assault. As the others armor up, preparing their attack spells, I wrap us together and teleport us almost on top of the Sentinel. Before it has a chance to register our presence, it's hit with an avalanche of attacks. Given the giant hand of Earth Josh summons, the avalanche is almost literal. Then we're away, to a nearby rooftop. My entire focus is on providing mobility.

We strike twice more before the Sentinel ruins the tactic by summoning several whirlwinds. While they don't do any damage, they're enough to tear our formation apart, pushing the others outside the area I feel safe teleporting. "Scatter!" I yell, moving to plan C.

The others are moving even as I teleport away, unleashing Smoulder on another rooftop before hopping to the next. Even as I throw a barrage of my own piercing arrows at the Sentinel, Smoulder smashes into its side. It staggers slightly as the mana-hare that's not even the size of its nostril slams into it. Which gives me another idea. Sending it through the bond, Smoulder is soon leaping towards its face and manages to get inside its nose. Unfortunately, when she detonates inside, it just knocks the nose off.

It doesn’t even acknowledge the damage, bashing down into a flurry of gusts, which should be Tipan harassing it in her wind-form. But its fist just passes through, less effective than Smoulder’s assault on its schnoz.

With the others taken care of, I start using the occasional teleport shear, shaving away slightly larger chunks than before, though it’s still dangerous. A single glancing blow reduced my Health by a third.

It takes us several long minutes but eventually we get it to fall sideways, its left leg rendered useless. Even then, it continues to fight us, blasting at use with jets of air that leave nickel-sized holes in anything they strike. It takes half an hour to reduce it to a point it stops fighting. As I inspect its fallen form, I realize that somehow, it's still functioning.

"The hell," I mutter as I kick the pieces apart, searching its insides for anything that might be keeping it functional. My attention is drawn to a twist of mana in the center of what used to be its chest. Finally, I find it, a small silver orb barely as large as the tip of my finger. When I pluck it out of the stone it was embedded in, the rest of the body just collapses. When I scan it, the analysis still reads the same. "Huh. Wonder if you can reuse these."

[Wyonna] "These are locked to Citizen control. I believe you'd need to be a Creator to adjust their settings. Possibly Creator Menas himself."

"That's some access level. You can't crack it?"

[Wyonna] "I’m good. But there’s nothing to crack. You can’t hack the sun, Lex."

"Well, good thing the cities themselves aren't like that. Any chance we can fly this thing?"

[Wyonna] "Unlikely. Looks like the controls have been thrashed. With concerted effort, some good old fashioned elbow grease, and a little spit, it might be possible to repair it. I'd have to see more, but my projections put it at a week, at least."

"Bad news?" Roberts asks as I'm frowning into space.

“Not terrible,” I inform him, then tell everyone Wyonna’s analysis, my eyes drifting to the silver engines. With the knowledge from my codexes, I'm certain we could retrofit one to return to earth. But that would be pointless. We need the cities to get people out.

"Well. This isn't a total waste at least," Josh says, tossing the little ball of silver to Rose. "If it only needs a week of repairs, that's not too bad. Especially if we can get help."

"Indeed. And we know we can take down a Sentinel while limiting the damage to only the inner city," Roberts agrees, his eyes drifting to the nearby building that was caught in an explosion of force when the Sentinel almost caught Rose.

"You know, I think it looks better this way," Rose says, holding all four hands up to form a box as he pretends to take a picture of the busted plaza. Somehow, the already awkward gesture looks even more awkward with four hands.

"Now that we're done here, can we return to the Aetherium?" Tipan asks, breaking me out of my contemplation.

"Not quite. There's a Nexus point an hour outside the city we should hit first. And we need to check for a de-condenser," I remind her.

"Yes, yes. But then we'll head back?"

Looking at the others, I receive a round of agreement. Even then, we take our time leaving the city, Tipan circling above us as we split up to each visit one of the silver engines. When I head downstairs, and the entire compartment is full of tubes, flow regulators and other components, I let out a sigh of relief. There’s some minor damage, but most of the engine's functional bits are intact. Following the knowledge of my codex, and combining it with the image from the quest, I even find a small object that analyze confirms is a mana-condenser. It doesn't match up to either the codex or the image, not exactly. But it's close enough. I'm pretty sure that Rufka will be able to make any adjustments we need.

With the de-condenser in hand, I return to the surface victorious. Wyonna informs me that the other engines are in even better shape. Having confirmed the state of the ship, we fly toward the Nexus point.

I spot an unusual star pattern of pink flowers I suspect are the Nexus point when a wave of mana-pressure presses against me, throwing me hundreds of metres higher. When I readjust, I see the others floating above me. Looking down, I orient myself on the pink star. Then I look to the horizon and realize... there's a new cliff face a few kilometres to the north. Bits of the edge tumble down as I stare at the hundred plus meter cliff that just... pushed its way up. It stretches from horizon to horizon, and as I inspect it, I realize we're near a low stretch.

"That's one hell of an earthquake," Roberts says, his eyes locked on a void in the distance. As I follow his gaze, zooming in, I realize it's a mana-vent, spewing huge amounts of mana into the air.

It seems Akilo is having one of those days.

"It happens. The farther you are away from one of the major vents, the less stable the surface is," Tipan says, her voice low as she clutches her staff with all four hands, her ears flicked back. "I've heard the Lords of the Deep are able to prevent it in their territory."

"Mum knows how to prevent it too," Rufka says as she floats down. As she does, I realize I was least affected by the concussive blast. Least, I'm guessing that's what it was.

"Your mother knows how to prevent mana-swells?" Tipan asks, turning to Rufka, her upper eyes twitching. "And she hasn't told anyone?"

"What? No," Rufka says, waving her hand in Tipan's direction. "She shared it with the Aetherium when I was a kitten. Apparently, they already knew how to do it."

If Rufka thought that was going to calm Tipan, I think she miscalculated, as Tipan’s staff makes an audible crack. Then Tipan takes a deep breath, closing all four eyes. After a long exhale, she smiles, a smile that reminds me of Beth. There’s a glint in Tipan's lower eyes as she looks north in the direction of the Aetherium. "Of course, they do."

"So, how often does this happen?" Josh asks, chewing on his lip as he takes in the newborn cliff.

"They don't really know. My mother theorized they happen several times a year," Rose says, "They're about as common as earthquakes on Earth, but as you can see, they tend to be more violent. If the mana flow changes, this could actually be drawn back down."

"Folthka studied mana-swells?" Tipan asks, turning towards the diminutive pu'shaha.

"Mother studied many things. Especially if they were related to the natural behaviour of mana or its interactions with the System," Rose answers with a shrug.

"This is all fascinating, but I kinda want to take a closer look," I say, waving towards the distant mana-vent.

"But we were about to- Actually, I'd like to take a closer look as well," Tipan says, squinting at the vent.

"Excellent, let us investigate this phenomenon," Roberts says, clapping a hand on our shoulders.

Nodding, I gather the others together, then teleport us a short distance from the vent. I might have miscalculated the safe distance, as we’re close enough, I can feel it pressing against us.

"Best we don't get too close. While it's uncommon, it is possible to get mana-poisoning from being exposed to a fresh mana-vent," Rose warns us as Tipan and I were taking our first step forward. Glancing back, I give him a nod, then push out, using my own mana, bound into a wind sphere, to keep the ambient mana back. It presses in with enough force that even my aura starts to shrink. Which I take the time to study, trying to simulate the feeling. Not too different from having a bath in jello.

I wonder if Sab's dad is still angry about that?

Trying to pull my aura back while it's under pressure is easier than before. Not exactly controllable though, seeing as it kinda collapses then bubbles back outward. But it gives me a chance to practice. So while we inspect the cavern, I continue to flex the edges of my aura. There are shards of essence lodged into the sides of the vent, and even as we creep closer, I lock onto several, drawing them into my inventory. Most seem to be earth and wind, but there's a smattering of almost every element mixed in.

"Do people mine mana-vents?" I ask as I continue sweeping the far side.

"Not often. It's dangerous to be this close. And auto-loot doesn't work," Rose says, peaking around the corner, projecting his own bubble of wind. I can't help but note it's not even a tenth the size of mine. Guess he needs to work on his aura even more than I do.

"Mum strips any that pop up in the reaches," Rufka adds. "It's pretty easy for her."

"Okay, dangerous for most people. Not everyone is like your mother," Rose says, rolling all four of his eyes.

With the essence on the far side of the cavern stripped, I switch my attention to closer nodes.

"I think... Lexi, are you looting essence?" Tipan asks, squinting at the disappearing essence while leaning on her staff.

"Totally," I reply, working my way deeper.

Tipan nods, though she's not looking at me. "You may want to be careful. We don't know what looting all that essence might do."

"Collapse the vent, if she takes enough," Rufka answers with a shrug. Which is enough for me to stop. I've already removed every bit of essence in sight anyway. We're now thousands of mortal essence shards richer. Fair number of Iron shards too. No mana essence though.

"Fascinating as this is, perhaps we should be on with our day," Roberts suggests, stepping away from the opening. I follow him, the others close behind. Except Rose, who passes outside my aura, his own almost collapsing once it's left to fend off the ambient mana on its own. Then it stabilizes just over his golden fur.

He shakes his head, then takes several slow purposeful steps towards us until he moves back into my aura. He glances at me for a second and I just give him a quick shrug.

Then we continue, landing at the pink star-flower, triggering the Nexus point access. With a thought, we're back in Glimmering Sands, where I gleefully pay our fees out of my sudden glut of elemental shards.

With our fees paid, we make our way to the surface, which feels empty now that the festival is over. The others make their way towards the inn, hoping to secure rooms for the night while Rufka, Tipan and I head north.

There're Fallen to cleanse.